OhForAGreavsie

Has he lived up to billing sufficiently well to command the kind of fee Madrid would no doubt want? (Just to be clear this is a question, not an opinion.)

I think we have to allow the negotiators to do their work. When we are chasing a player, I often read opinions which say something like, "Stop low balling and just pay the asking price." Then, when we are selling, we get, " Stop messing about, and just take what we're offered." Those two points of view seem a bit contradictory to me.

I hope that you are right. After a promising cameo against Fulham, my opinion of Noni quickly went downhill. I came to feel that he is too much of a one trick pony. From his second game onward it was clear that sides defended him with one defender facing up, and another stationed a few yards to that defender's right covering Noni's check onto his left foot. That greatly reduces the threat of his trick, if not totally nullifies it all together. I'm not expecting consistent contributions, or many starts from Noni. Anything above that and he will prove me significantly wrong. We all end up with opinions which we feel are worth defending. I find however, that it is very easy to let negative ideas about Chelsea players go if contradictory evidence comes in. I hope that is how it will go for me with Noni.

Yes, but it was Billy Gallas.

Nor can I prove my statement any longer. I was posting on CFCNet in 2011 but the original version of that site has closed down in the last year so everything posted there has gone. That said, I have been posting here since about 2016 and have mentioned what I said about Lukaku quite a few times. Maybe that counts a bit. 🙂

Thankfully this is a song you will never have to sing again. The truth is out of the box about Rom and it's never going back in. For the record I told people in 2011 that Rom was not then, and never would be, good enough for Chelsea.

This must be true.

This is exactly the correct thing for our negotiators to say. Nothing for you to be angry about.

I think @Vegetable has this right, in that the statement about Lukaku is a negotiating stance. Of course the thing with negotiating stances is that people have to believe that you'll follow through or they're no good. 🙂 Also, CL qualification has to be a near imperative target next season, but top 5 might do for that.

Makes sense again. June 30th is the end of the 2022/2023 season, and therefore the period to be accounted but the numbers don't have to be submitted until a later uefa deadline.

This makes sense. The people in charge of the club eat, breathe, and sleep money. It would be a shock if they didn't have this covered. Do you remember the podcast name? I'd like to give it a listen.

Me too! That'll be a great night out in Bilbao for the girls if they do.

And two more rumoured; Amy Lawrence - PSG - RB/LB, and Esther Gonzalez - Real Madrid - CF. I really like all of the signings so far, but Macario and Nusken are probably my favourites. A glimpse of what Nusken can bring: -

A compilation of Sam Kerr's 2022/23 goals.

Yes, exactly.

Exciting stuff! I wonder who it might be. Can't be long till we know but still fun to guess in the meantime. 🙂 The guess that comes to mind immediately is Ona Batlle, but that can't be right can it? We have Eve, we're rumoured to be signing Amy Lawrence, and now a third starting quality right back? It seems overkill. I suppose Amy could be slated to play at left back, or perhaps high wide-right, but what then for Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd? I can't quite see it and, in any case, I can't convince myself that Batlle would leave United for another WSL club, nevermind the fact that she is herself rumored to be returning to Barcelona. If not her then who? I have no idea. 🙂

As Emma says, Guro Reiten should have won the poll but, the fact that she didn't, is excellent news! If voting was limited to fans who watch the women's team every week, it would have been Impossible for Sam to gather more votes than Guro. In one poll among Kingsmeadow regulars Guro is comfortably beating Sam, and everyone else in the squad, combined. It's not even close. This can only mean that lots of votes in the club's official poll have come from people who, so far, have not followed the women's team closely. Perhaps they have mainly been able to catch the big games. In which case, Sam's high name recognition, and her Drogba like habit of finding the net on the biggest occasions, would have skewed the voting towards her. If more Chelsea fans are noticing the women's team, even if that notice is pretty casual at the moment, that's great news in my opinion. I understand that not everyone is interested enough to even give women's football a try. I know that not everyone who does give it a try finds that they want to keep watching, but if some people have become interested enough to watch a few games and cast a player of the season vote, this is very positive. Step by step. Now to explain why the players voted for Sam not Guro. 🙂

Lawrence is definitely on my wish list but there is a complication. She can play left back but her true position is RB/RWB and we have a French international in those positions, Eve Perisset, who we signed last summer. The complication is that I really like Eve. She is good in possession, and is in a particularly good vein of form currently. She manages to find passes which progress the play, and that's something several members of our defensive squad struggle with. Eve however is not an elite player out of possession. She's a good technical defender, but she lacks pace and physicality. If she had those attributes she might very well be the best female fullback in the world, but she does not. These drawbacks are behind the trajectory of Eve's pre Chelsea career in my opinion. She started with the best women's team in the world, Lyon. Moved down a step to the uber wealthy, and mega ambitious PSG, then stepped down again to Bordeaux. Before joining Chelsea every move has been backwards. Lawrence meanwhile, is very good technically but has size, pace, and power. Eve is very popular and seeing her starting minutes further restricted (Emma has preferred more physical players for some games) won't go down well but Lawrence is better. Maybe Lawrence's two international teammates at Cobham might encourage her to choose Blue. I hope so.

If true, this looks like a direct replacement for Pernille.

Good performance, good result, on Sunday.

It's a shame, sort of, though long expected. Fans singing we want you to stay for the last six months has not worked, and probably was never going to. The bottom line is that the time is right for Magda to leave and, since she and Pernille are done with living in separate countries. it's pretty inevitable that Pernille will follow wherever Magda goes. Though Mags has been playing in the absence of both starting CBs, the reality is that she is no longer first choice, and would fall further down the pecking order when Aniek returns from a season long loan in Milan. Worse, Emma tried to sign a left back in January and will probably go again with that in summer. She isn't likely to land her January target, McCabe from Arsenal, but she probably will strengthen that position. If so then the fill in minutes Magda has gained at left back will also be restricted. Mags is 29 and P is 30. They can't really wait much longer. Not if they want a good move anyway and, let's face it, Bayern is a brilliant move so now is the time I'm afraid.

Noted.

As I said when the decision was made. Fortunately, we were so anemic in the home game vs Madrid that his being in the side would have made no difference anyway.

Just as in music, or football fans with opinions, the oldies are the best. Well some new music is great I'm sure, but I am distinctly old. Nothing wrong with the opinion we share however. I was adamant all along that what we needed was an upgrade to Chilly, not a back up for him. (Not that we even got that as it turns out.)